KANGAR – Four Thai men were separately charged at the sessions court here today with the smuggling of migrants involving two Myanmar nationals at Bukit Wang Burma, Wang Kelian, Padang Besar between 2013 and 2015.
According to a Bernama report, the four men, Jehpa Lapi-E, 56, Somphon A-Dam, 51, Arun Kaeofainok, 30, and Amree Nesalaeh, 58, nodded in understanding when the charge was read out by the court interpreter before judge Musyiri Peet.
However, no plea was recorded as the offence under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 is under the high court’s purview.
According to the charge sheet, Jehpa, Somphon, and Arun were each charged with smuggling a Myanmar man known as Zedul Islam at Bukit Wang Burma, Wang Kelian, Padang Besar between February and April 2013.
The other accused, Amree, was charged with smuggling another Myanmar man, Mohd Belal, at the same place at around 5.30am between August 2014 and March 2015.
The four men had been extradited after Putrajaya and Bangkok initiated investigations to identify and apprehend those allegedly behind the the migrant smuggling activities that led to death camps in Wang Kelian near the Malaysian-Thai border.
Malaysia had issued an extradition request to the Thai government on January 6, 2017 for ten Thai nationals.
In accordance with the Thai Court of Appeals’ order, the handover of the current four individuals was carried out yesterday.
The Wang Kelian incident, known as one of the most heinous cases of human trafficking and migrant smuggling in the region, saw the discovery of a mass grave and a ramshackle migrant camp deep in the jungle of Bukit Genting Perah and Bukit Wang Burma, just a few hundred metres from the border, in May 2015.
Over 100 makeshift graves and 29 temporary detention camps were discovered there.
The event sparked widespread reactions of shock and concern both within and outside Malaysia.
A royal commission of inquiry report on the tragedy, declassified in October, concluded that the torture and deaths of over 130 smuggled immigrants should have been prevented by local authorities. – The Vibes, June 23, 2023
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